Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey was born in Nancy on the 17th November 1854, achieved the Baccaleaureat in July 1872, entered Saint-Cyr and 1873 before attending army training school 1876. Made a lieutenant in December 1877, he was posted to the 20th light cavalry regiment at Rambouillet before being transferred on request to Châteaudun. Trained in cavalry, in the 2nd regiment of hussars, he joined his regiment in Sézanne in August 1880, which left two months later for Algeria. Posted to Orléansville followed by Algiers, he developed a passion for Arab civilisation, learning the language and familiarising himself with colonial matters, administration and French and Algerian politics. He preferred a solution of autonomy and protectorate to the policy of total assimilation to France and direct administration, believing that France's action could only be accepted and respected by itself respecting the civilisations and cultures it sought to manage, and that this must be achieved by working in association with the local elites.

After a few months spent in Teniet-el-Haad, outpost of southern Algeria, captain Lyautey was moved to the 4th light cavalry regiment in Bruyères, in the Vosges, in 1882. In October of the following year he became aide-de-camp for general Hotte, general inspector of cavalry, whom he followed in his postings to Commercy then to Tours. On the 19th November 1887, he took command of the 1st squadron of the 4th light cavalry regiment of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. In this position, he set about improving the living conditions of his men, both materially as well as culturally, and to train them, putting his reformist principles into practice with regard to the officer's social role. He was given the opportunity to publish his innovative theories in an article which was to have a major impact, entitled ?On the social role of the officer in universal military service?, published in the Revue des Deux Mondes (Two Worlds Review) on the 15th March 1891.

Transferred to the 12e regiment of hussars at Gray, then made Chief of Staff of the 7th cavalry division at Meaux in 1893, Lyautey was appointed major in Indochina en 1894. First as Colonel Gallieni's Chief of Staff, then as major of the Chinese border military zone (Lang Son territory), he took part in the expeditions to upper Tonkin against the Chinese pirates pillaging the region. By Gallieni's side, and convinced that the populations must be shown the French army's strength to prevent them gaining the upper hand, he set up the necessary infrastructure for improving the region: reconstruction of villages, road building, rebuilding and development of cultures and business. Second-in-command, before being promoted to Chief of Staff of the occupation forces, he was subsequently appointed to director of the military bureau of Armand Rousseau, governor general of Indochina. Improving his knowledge of Indochina's political, administrative and financial issues, he continued his action throughout the territory. In March 1897, he returned to Gallieni, appointed a few months previously as the governor general of Madagascar. Gallieni assigned him the task of pacifying the northwest and the west of the island followed by organising the south. The occupation of the territories was combined with large-scale infrastructure work designed to improve the economic and commercial growth of the country.

Promoted to colonel in 1900, he returned to France in 1902 to take command of the 14th regiment of hussars at Alençon before being called to the South-Oran region in 1903 by Charles Jonnart, governor general of Algeria. Appointed as brigadier general, he took command of the Aïn Sefra subdivision in October then of the Oran division at the end of the 1906. Eventually appointed major general in 1907, the following year he became the government's high commissioner for the occupied zone in the Oudjda region of Morocco. He began his task by supervising the redevelopment of the border zone between Algeria and Morocco, the seat of constant unrest, by setting up new frontier posts designed both to secure the region, regularly threatened by incursions from tribes hostile to the French presence as well as to open up the route into Morocco. He set up a line of frontier posts stretching from the south of Béchar, renamed Colomb, occupied in October 1903, leading to the north at Berguent, in the oasis of Ras el Aïn, in June 1904. He dedicated the months that followed to strengthening and extending the operation towards the west. As much a diplomat as a military man, Lyautey also improved and increased contacts at the same time with the various local chiefs in order to bring them around to accepting French policy. After the pacification of the border region between Algeria and Morocco, he returned to France in 1910 to take command of the 10th army corps of Rennes.

In March 1912, the convention of Fès established the French protectorate over Morocco, whilst the north of the country remained under Spanish influence. Lyautey became its resident general commissioner on the 28th of the following April. The protectorate was not unanimously accepted in Morocco however. There were many opponents to the treaty and to the sultan who signed it. The situation continued to deteriorate yet further. Arriving in Casablanca in mid-May, Lyautey went directly to Fès, which was besieged by the Berber chiefs' troops. It was to be the beginning of a difficult campaign. The country was in total chaos, and administratively and economically, the protectorate had to be entirely built from scratch. At the end of the violent battles, peace was finally returned to Fès and its region. During the summer, a new sultan was named. Lyautey was called upon to re-establish this new sovereign's religious and political authority to the whole country. Peacemaking in the region was slowly but surely achieved. In May 1914, Taza, strategic town for entry to Algeria, was occupied. The plains and coastal towns were now under French control. At the same time as these military operations were being carried out, he undertook large scale economic and social modernisation work in order to promote growth in the country. Important administrative, legal and economic reforms took place. Administrative frameworks were set up, ports, agriculture research and mining were all developed, towns and roads were modernised and schools and hospitals and dispensaries were created and built, and fixed or mobile sanitation stations... the task was enormous.

During the First World War, he briefly became War minister from December 1916 to March 1917, in the Briand cabinet before returning to Morocco. Despite weakened manpower, he managed not only to maintain a French presence but also to increase his influence throughout the whole conflict. On his return and for eight more years of working tirelessly, intense political and economic activity led by him contributed to the country's growth. The crowning achievement of his career came in 1921, when he was awarded the title of Marshal of France. In the Rif, however, the situation was beginning to cause concern. The uprising led by Abd el-Krim against the Spanish was advancing, threatening French Morocco. In spring 1925, Abd el-Krim attacked, threatening the Taza and Fès sectors. Lyautey, who had seen his forces gradually reduced in numbers over the recent years, immediately organised a defensive barrier whilst waiting for reinforcements. Opposed to the French governments' handling of operations, and subsequently denied by them, he returned for good to France in October and retired to Thorey, in Lorraine. From 1927 to 1931, he undertook a last mission, the organisation of the international colonial exhibition of Vincennes.

Marshal Lyautey passed away on the 27th July 1934. Initially buried in Rabat, his body was exhumed and repatriated to France in 1961 to be buried in the Invalides cemetery. Hubert Lyautey was awarded the Grand-Cross of the Legion of Honour and was also decorated for outstanding gallantry in the field, of the colonial medal of Tonkin and Morocco, holder of the medal of Morocco for campaigns in Casablanca, Oudjda and Haut-Guir, as well as numerous foreign decorations. Elected to the Academy Française on the 31st October 1912, he was also the author of several studies and books, including "The social role of the officer in universal military service", published in La Revue des Deux Mondes (The Two Worlds Review), 1891, The colonial role of the army, 1900, In Southern Madagascar, military penetration, political and economic situation, 1903, Letters from Tonkin Madagascar: 1894-1899, 1920, Words of action: 1900-1926, 1927, Letters from youth: 1883-1893, 1931.

Raymond, Nicolas, Landry Poincaré, was born into an old family from the Lorraine on the 20th August 1860 in Bar-le-Duc. Following his secondary education in Bar-le-Duc and then in Paris, with a degree in law as well as in the arts, he was enrolled as a lawyer at the Paris bar in 1880. He received his doctorate in law and became a legal columnist at the Voltaire, a radical daily newspaper edited by Jules Laffitte. In 1886, at the age of 26, he made his debut in politics as the head of the cabinet of Jules Develle, the Minister of Agriculture. He was elected General Councillor of the Meuse and then, the following year, MP for the same département. Specialising in financial matters, he was the reporting officer of the 1890 budget and in 1893 accepted the portfolio for Public Instruction and the Arts in Prime Minister Dupuy's cabinet. In 1894, he became Minister of Finance before taking on the portfolio for Public Instruction and the Arts again for a short period, along with running the Department of Religion in Ribot's cabinet in 1895. After the fall of the latter, he declined Jules Méline's offer of Finance Minister in the new government. Whilst establishing a rapidly well-known legal practice, he continued to carry out his parliamentary duties and became vice president of the Chamber.

He was Senator of the Meuse from 1903 to 1913 and in 1906 he accepted the portfolio for Finance in Sarrien's cabinet. He was elected to the French Academy in 1909. In January 1912, as President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs following the Agadir Affair, which set Germany and France against Morocco, he was in favour of restoring executive power against the Assembly and of a liberal yet strong state and set out to solve the problems of overseas policy. On the 30th March he signed the treaty of the protectorate with the Sultan of Morocco. In addition, he sought to strengthen the bonds between France and Great Britain and Russia. To this end, an agreement to provide naval assistance was negotiated with Great Britain and in August he went to Russia to revive the alliance. A "Secular Republican" and man of order, he was elected President of the Republic on the 17th January 1913. Faced with the prospect of war, he got the three year military service law voted through in August and, on the overseas front, strengthened alliances by making a second trip to Russia in July 1914. Once war was declared his vital task was to win the conflict. For that he had to muster up all his forces and unite all the faithful, both from the left and the right, in a word, make the "Sacred Union ". The government would be headed in turn by Viviani, Briand, Ribot and Painlevé, but before weapons could prove successful. Military and political problems multiplied: defeat for the French on the Chemin des Dames, mutinies on the front, the reawakening of social tensions and the end of the Sacred Union. Keeping his personal feelings to himself, Poincaré called upon his political enemy, Clemenceau, who became President of the Council on the 16th November 1917. In 1918 came the victory and the return of the Alsace-Lorraine to France.
At the end of his 7-year term of office he again became Senator of the Meuse and was Chairman of the Reparations Committee between February and May 1920, before being appointed Council President and Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1922. He was in favour of the integral execution of the Treaty of Versailles and, despite Allied reticence, he sent General Degoutte's troops to occupy the Ruhr on the 11th January 1923, as the Germans were late with their reparations payment. The result of the legislative elections, giving a majority to the "Cartel of the left", forced him to hand in his resignation in June 1924. He was recalled on the 23rd July 1926 to try to right a catastrophic financial situation, immediately restoring confidence and managing to stabilise the Franc. Absorbed by monetary problems, he left the domain of foreign affairs to Briand who chose a different policy, that of seeking a compromise with Germany. Due to illness, Poincaré resigned in July 1929 and concentrated on writing his Memoirs, Au service de la France (Serving France) (1926-1933). He died on the 15th October 1934. Following a state funeral held in Paris, he was buried in Nubécourt.

Aristide Briand was born in Nantes on 28 March 1862, into a family of café owners whose ancestors worked the land. After studying law, he was admitted to the bar in Saint-Nazaire before moving to Paris where he worked for La Lanterne, the populist anti-clerical newspaper founded by Eugène Mayer. Alongside Jean Jaurès, he struggled to maintain unity between the opposing currents within the French socialist movement. After being elected as a parliamentary representative in 1902, he went on to hold many political posts. He was a brilliant speaker and was chosen as rapporteur of the bill for the separation of the Church and the State, which was passed in 1905. In 1906, he was entrusted with his first ministerial portfolio in charge of public instruction and worship. He succeeded Georges Clemenceau as Prime Minister in 1909, and one of his many noteworthy successes was to pass the bill for workers' and farmers' pensions (April 1910).

On the eve of World War 1, while supporting the lengthening of military service, Aristide Briand urged the world's political leaders to seek peaceful solutions to their differences. However, when war was declared, he entered the "sacred union" mixed party government as Justice Minister and Vice-President of the Council, and gave his support to the command during the Battle of the Marne. He played an important role as head of the government and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1915 to 1917, notably organising the Salonika expedition and coordinating military and economic operations with the Allies. The four years of war had bled Europe dry. The former belligerents, who had borrowed heavily to keep up supplies to their troops, were economically devastated by the end of the conflict. In France, the richest and most industrialised regions had been extremely hard hit. With almost one and a half million dead and more than a million seriously wounded, a large section of the population had been wiped out. War pensions and the costs of reconstruction were a drain on the treasury. The peace treaty, signed with Germany on 28 June 1919 in Versailles, stipulated that Germany must pay reparations for the damage caused by the war. The thorny question of settling these reparations was to become one of the main issues presiding over Franco-German relations for a decade or so and the source of much contention between the Allies themselves.
In the aftermath of the war, Aristide Briand was a partisan of the strict application of the Treaty of Versailles and firmly believed that Germany should be forced to pay reparations for the war. He would nevertheless abandon this stance in favour of a more peaceful approach in the framework of the League of Nations, and from then on he concentrated his efforts on improving relations with Germany. At the Cannes conference in January 1922, he was open to the proposal of alleviating German debt in return for a guarantee of French borders. His position was severly criticised by Alexandre Millerand, president of the Republic, and he was forced to resign. As the French representative of the League of Nations in 1924, he continued to advocate a policy of conciliation, conscious that Franco-German relations could only be improved by making certain concessions. He expressed his views thus: "I believe that peace within our nation, political and social peace, is the ultimate wish of the entire country... The desire for peace, in a country such as France, which has suffered so much from the war and, since the armistice, has been subjected to a series of challenges and provocations that would justify impatience, is proof of patience". Once again Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1925, Aristide Briand pursued his policy of reconciliation with Germany, seeing it as the only way to establish lasting peace in Europe. He struck up a dialogue with his German counterpart, Gustav Stresemann, who was also a partisan of the policy of conciliation. At the Locarno conference, which brought together the representatives of Germany, Belgium, Italy, France and Great Britain, he signed the treaty with Germany to guarantee the borders of France and Belgium and established a pact for mutual assistance on 16 October 1925. After Locarno, he supported Germany's application to join the League of Nations, which would be accepted the following year. In December 1926 he and his German counterpart, Gustav Stresemann, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
For some, the Locarno agreements and the admission of Germany into the League of Nations marked the beginning of a new era announcing the end of Franco-German antagonism, but for Aristide Briand it was only the first step on the road to peace. The absence of the United States from the League of Nations weakened the influence of the organisation. In 1927, he embarked on a mission to coax the United States out of its isolationist position. By calling out "to the American nation", he gained the support of its powerful pacifist organizations. On 27 August 1928, the Briand-Kellogg Pact, so named after the US Secretary of State with whom Briand had negotiated the pact, "outlawed" war: "Article 1: All signatory states solemnly declare in the name of their respective peoples that they condemn the reliance on war in order to resolve international differences and renounce the use of war as an instrument of national policy in their mutual relations. Article 2: All signatory states recognise that the settlement or resolution of any differences or conflicts that may arise between them, regardless of the nature or origin of these differences or conflicts, should be sought through peaceful means only." Despite being approved by fifty-seven countries, including Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union, this pact had only a moral value since it did not define the sanctions that would apply to any country that failed to respect its dispositions. Moreover, the United States, which was enjoying a period of economic prosperity at the time, was reticent about getting involved in an eventual European conflict.
Aristide Briand then decided to embark upon a new and resolutely European policy. In September 1929, during a speech in Geneva, he took up an idea previously put forward by Count Coudenhove-Kalergi, the Austrian diplomat who had founded the Pan-Europa movement, and suggested the creation of a regional union, a "European Federation" whose competence would extend mainly to economic matters and would not encroach upon national sovereignty. This proposal met with great success and the delegates of the twenty-seven European states commissioned him to produce a memorandum on the subject. This memorandum was presented to them in May 1930. In it Aristide Briand took his project a step further. Falling within the framework of the League of Nations, this institution would be composed of a European Union Conference, a representative body bringing together representatives of all the European government members of the League of Nations, a permanent Political Committee, an executive body, which would be presided over in turn by the different member states, and a Secretariat. One of the main aims would be "the creation of common market to raise the level of well-being to a maximum amongst all the peoples of the European community".
The memorandum did not receive the same welcome as his initial words at the League of Nations. In France and around the world, Aristide Briand's vision met with increasing resistance. The greatest obstacle was the persistence of nationalism. While the principle of cooperation was not questioned, the idea of a full political and economic European union was far from popular. It was the political aspect of the project, especially the mention of "federal links", that awakened suspicion. A commission was created to study the proposal on 23 September 1930 and Aristide Briand was elected to preside over it. Although the commission was charged with studying the practicalities of a possible collaboration at the heart of Europe, it would not come up with any results. Throughout his diplomatic career Aristide Briand, known as the "pilgrim of peace" never ceased to look for opportunities to establish peace in Europe. Sadly, his project for a united Europe was unable to resist the economic crisis and the rise of dictatorships that would ensue. Aristide Briand died on 7 March 1932.

Wilhelm Keitel joins the army in 1901 and holds several posts during the First World War, serving primarily as an officer in the General Staff. After Germany falls in 1918, he pursues his military career at the heart of the new German army, the Reichswehr, as it was authorized by the Treaty of Versailles.

When Adolf Hitler came into power in 1933 and started rebuilding the armed forces, Wilhelm Keitel's career began to rapidly progress. He was named a brigadier in 1934 and the following year became chief of the War Cabinet and the director of the Wehrmachtsamt, in charge of the coordination of the armed forces. In 1938, Wilhelm Keitel became chief of the newly-created Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW - Armed Forces High Command). On 22 June 1940, he signed the Franco-German armistice at Rethondes. This zealous executor of Adolf Hitler's orders was named chief of the OKW -- the Armed Forces High Command -- in 1938, and during the war authorized all Hitler's military decisions as well as the terror tactics he employed in countries taken by the Germans, most notably the execution of hostages and NN (Night and Fog) prisoners. He was promoted to Marshal in July 1940. Despite several attempts on the part of the leading circles of the army and the General Staff to shake up the top of the military hierarchy, he kept his positions until the end of the Second World War. On 9 May 1945, he signed the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht on the orders of Grand Admiral Doentiz. In 1946, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg condemned him to death for Crimes against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity.

Adolphe Félix Eboué was born on 26th December 1884 at Cayenne (in Guiana), fourth in a black family of 5 children. His father - originally a gold-washer - ran a grocery from 1898 onwards with his wife. In 1901 he received a limited scholarship to continue his education in Bordeaux. Achieving his baccalaureat in 1905, he attended the colonial school in Paris from where he graduated in 1908. Very quickly he became attracted to black Africa and its civilisations from which he derived his Creole status. He thus became interested in the administration of the African colonies, and in 1909 he was appointed Chief Administrator in Oubangui-Chari (now the Central African Republic) where western influence was not yet complete. He remained in the post until 1933, frequently returning to Guiana to spend his leave. There he married Eugénie Tell in 1921. In Black Africa, Félix Eboué developed his own brand of colonial policy, attempting to reconcile modernisation of material life, whilst maintaining African culture. This explained his support for the production of new crops such as cotton and the development of road and rail infrastructure. At the same time he fought to preserve food crops, learned local languages and extended his research into traditions...

A supporter of the association - and not assimilation - of colonised peoples, he frequently clashed with his superiors who were unimpressed with his membership, in 1928, of the Ligue des droits de l'homme (Human Rights League). In fact, Félix Eboué wanted to strike the delicate balance of being both a strict colonial administrator and an uncompromising humanitarian. In 1934, he moved to French Sudan (now Mali). With the support of the black élites, he strove to develop the banks of the Sudan and encouraged the nomadic peoples to adopt a sedentary lifestyle cultivating the land. In between times, in 1932 and 1933, he was Secretary-General of Martinique, where he sought to develop the island and improve conditions for the worst off and reduce antagonism between White, Mixed Race and Black peoples.

Recalled from Sudan, he was given responsibility in 1936, for applying the policy of the Front Populaire in Guadeloupe. Finding this divided island in crisis, he opened negotiations and introduced a plan to provide credit-assistance, professional training, the building of housing, and to clean up public finances. On 4th January 1939, he was appointed Governor of Chad, a new and newly-pacified colony. Aware of the country's strategic importance, with the Italian threat in the region becoming clearer, he began major infrastructural development. On 6th June 1940, news of the defeat of the French army and the armistice reached Fort-Lamy. General de Gaulle's appeal several days later was also heard. In Brazzaville, after initial hesitation, Boisson, the Governor-General of French Equatorial Africa, pledged allegiance to Marshall Pétain. On 29th June, Eboué, who viewed the armistice as depriving his motherland of the values that he had always defended, cabled his determination not to implement its terms. Although its geographical isolation put it in a difficult position, Chad remained in a state of war. On 16th July, a telegram from General de Gaulle gave him the support of the leader of Free France, whose emissaries arrived on 24th August. On 26th, a proclamation declared Chad's alliance with Free France. Cameroon and Congo followed its example: Eboué had given the signal for African dissidence, providing outstanding support to the cause of the France that was still fighting.

Relieved of his post and condemned to death in absentia by the Vichy Government, Félix Eboué was appointed Governor-General of French Equatorial Africa on 13th November by General de Gaulle, and the seat of the Council for the Defence of the Empire. Chad became the base for French people re-entering the fighting: it was from here that Leclerc launched his legendary raid on Koufra in March 1942, and the F.F.L. (Free French Forces) attacked the Italians at Fezzan, then in Tripolitania. At the same time as providing supplies to these troops, organising a wartime economy and rebuilding trade, Eboué sought to bring civil peace to French Equatorial Africa, easing the tensions raised in 1940 between Gaullists and supporters of Pétain. At the same time, he was convinced that French rule could not be maintained in Black Africa in the long term without a profound reform of colonial policy.

This was the tone of his circular of 8th November 1941, promoting the observance of customary law, the association of African Councils of Administration, training for native top civil servants, the extension of contracts of employment, etc. In July 1942, General de Gaulle signed three decrees in a similar vein. On 30th January 1944, the leader of Free France opened a conference on the future of French African Territories in Brazzaville. Tackling topics dear to Eboué, such as native involvement in administration and the redistribution of regions according to ethnic affiliations, the conference's recommendations left him unsatisfied as they rejected any long-term autonomy, instead suggesting elected representation of the African Territories. Tired, Eboué took some leave and left in 1944 with his family - who joined him from France in 1942 - in Egypt. He used this opportunity to work on diplomatic relations between Egypt and the provisional government of the French Republic. On 17th May 1944, he died after suffering a pulmonary embolism. On 19th May 1949, Félix Eboué's ashes were transferred to the Panthéon in Paris. At the ceremony, Gaston Monnerville, President of the Senate, recalled that "it was a message of humanity that guided Félix Eboué, and all those of us who fought in the Resistance overseas, at a time when brutish fanaticism threatened to extinguish the light of the spirit, and where freedom was at risk of falling like France." Félix Eboué's memory is today honoured through several monuments and commemorative plaques. Furthermore, in Paris, a Metro station is named after him and Daumesnil.

Heureux ceux qui sont morts pour la terre charnelle,

Mais pourvu que ce soit pour une juste guerre.

Heureux ceux qui sont morts pour quatre coins de terre.

Heureux ceux qui sont morts d'une mort solennelle »

Charles PEGUY, Prière pour nous autres charnels

Charles Péguy is born on January 7th 1873 in Orléans in the bosom of family of modest conditions. His father, who was a carpenter dies the same year of his birth and he is raised by his mother, who works as a upholsterer. Very good pupil, Charles Péguy, will benefit of an university grant, which will give him the chance to do brilliant studies after the elementary school. After having accomplished his military service in the 131st I.R. in 1892 he enters the University preparing him for senior posts in teaching, where he will be taught of prestigious professors as the medievalist Joseph Bédier, the writer Romain Rolland or the philosopher Henri Bergson, this last professor will have a great influence on his intellectual maturity. In 1896 he will get his bachelor degree in arts. After failing the competitive examination in philosophy for the posts in the teaching, he will leave the institution in 1897. He will give up any religious practice and commit himself in the conviction of the dreyfusic cause, after having met Bernard Lazare. In 1897, Peguy collaborates for the "Revue Blanche" and completes his fist work, "Jeanne d'Arc" in June. The next year he will write "Marcel, premier dialogue de la cité harmonieuse."

In 1898 Charles Péguy will marry with Charlotte Baudouin, sister of his best friend, who died little time before. The couple lives in 7, rue de l'Estrapade in Paris and will have four children : Marcel in 1898, Germaine in 1901, Pierre in 1903 and Charles-Pierre in 1915. Marcel Baudouin oriented him towards socialistic ideals. Vharles Péguy will be involved in political actions, at the side of Jean Jaurès, Lucien Herr and Charles Andler. Furthermore he collaborates in the creation of the "Revue Socialiste" (Socialistic Revue). With George Bellais he will also invest in a bookshop, which will quickly become a meeting point of the resistance to the Marxian socialism, preached by Jules Guesde and Jean Jaurès will try to influence the parliamentary left. In January 1900, Charles Péguy founds the "Cahier de la Quinzaine" an independent publishing house, which publishes every month it's own literary review. Installed in 8, rue de la Sorbonne he will personally take the leadership. It will publish 229 parts between the January 5th and July 1914, which will give Péguy the chance to publish his works,as well as those of his friends such as André Suarès, Anatole France, Georges Sorel or Julien Benda. Péguy also writes topical essays about the separation between the church and the government, the crises of the teaching sector.

In 1905, the incident of Tanger reveals to him the German threat and the "universal evil". Péguy will protest against pacifism and internationalism of the left. Thus in October he will publish "Notre Patrie" (Our Fatherland), a polemic and patriotic work. During the following years the writer also denounces the scientism of the "intellectual party", in other words he criticises his former university professors. In 1908 he will come back to his religious convictions. He will confide this to his friend Joseph Lotte. From 1912 to 1914 Charles Péguy will leave for several pilgrimages in Notre-Dame de Chartres. The writer at present castigates the official socialism, to which he blames its demagogy and its anticlerical sectarianism, after the separation of the church from the government. The writer will write mystical, philosophic essays such as "Clio, Dialogue de l'Histoire et de l'Âme païenne" , published between 1909 and 1912, or "Victor-Marie, comte Hugo" in 1910. His personal and timeless style is expressed in various oratorical poems of insistent rhythms : "Le Mystère de la charité de Jeanne d'Arc", in 1910 ; "Le Porche du Mystère de la deuxième Vertu", one year after; "Le Mystère des et La Tapisserie de sainte Geneviève et de Jeanne d'Arc" in 1912 ; "La Tapisserie de Notre-Dame", en 1913. In his last works Péguy re-discusses the the confrontation between mysticism and politics and the interior life of the citizens, of whom he already talked at the beginning of his work. Finally with "Eve", written in 1913, this vast symphonic poem of some 3000 quatrains, the patriotic writer again celebrates the dead of "the carnal world", the world of the ancestors.

On August 2nd 1914, the general mobilization, forces Péguy to interrupt his essay about M. Descartes et the Cartesian philosophy, a speech for the defence ofBergson. On August 4th he takes the command of the reservists unit in Colommiers and reaches Lorraine. After a short campaign in Metz his 276th I.R. moves backwards to Aisne, where the French army retreats. On September 5th 1914 in Villeroy, close to Meaux, at the time of the Marne battle, General Péguy's unit will be confronted with the enemy, who is trying to reach Paris. Here the officer will be shoot in the middle of his forehead. His body is buried among his other companions in the cemetery of Chaucoin-Neufmontiers.

Heureux les grands vainqueurs.

Paix aux hommes de guerre.

Qu'ils soient ensevelis dans un dernier silence.

Que Dieu mette avec eux la juste balance

Un peu de ce terreau d'ordure et de poussière.

Que Dieu mette avec eux dans le juste plateau

Ce qu'ils ont tant aimé, quelques grammes de terre.

Un peu de cette vigne, un peu de ce coteau,

Un peu de ce ravin sauvage et solitaire.

Mère voici vos fils qui se sont tant battus.

Vous les voyez couchés parmi les nations.

Que Dieu ménage un peu ces êtres débattus,

Ces coeurs pleins de tristesse et d'hésitations.

Et voici le gibier traqué dans les battues,

Les aigles abattus et les lièvres levés.

Que Dieu ménage ces coeurs tant éprouvés

Ces torses déviés, ces nuques rebattues.

Que Dieu ménage un peu de ces êtres combattus,

Qu'il rappelle sa grâce et sa miséricorde.

Qu'il considère un peu de ce sac et cette corde

Et ces poignets liés et ces reins courbatus.

Mère voici vos fils qui se sont tant battus.

Qu'ils ne soient pas pesés comme Dieu pèse un ange.

Que Dieu mette avec eux un peu de cette fange

Qu'ils étaient en principe et sont redevenus."

Extrait de l'œuvre poétique Eve, publiée dans le Quatorzième cahier de la quinzième série, le 28 décembre 1913.

Anna Bétoulinksy was born in Saint Petersburg on 30 October, at the time of the very 1917 Revolution in which her father was shot to death. She left Russia for France at the beginning of the 1920's. As a refugee living in the Russian community of Menton with her mother, her elder sister and their loyal nanny, she endured some difficult, but happy years. At the age of 13 she was given a guitar. She never parted with this gift, which was to completely change the course of her life. "This was when I discovered the magic of sounds influenced by Charles Trénet." In 1934, she returned to Paris and began an artistic career under the pseudonym Anna Marly - she chose the surname out of the phone book. She began working as a dancer at the Ballets russes, and toured Europe with the company before joining the Ballets Wronska as their principal dancer.

But Anna didn't forget about her music. After some time spent working on her voice in the Paris conseratory, she began putting on her own shows in 1935. With her guitar and her own repertory, she performed at Shéhérazade, the Parisian cabaret club for gilded youth, then at the théâtre des Variétés in Brussels, and the Savoy Club in La Hague. During her stay in Holland, she met her future husband, the Baron van Doorn. The same year, Anna had a major professional success when she became the youngest ever member of SACEM (Société des Auteurs Compositeurs et des Editeurs de Musique). On 13th June 1940, Paris was declared an open city. Anna and her husband left the capital and went into exile. After travelling through Spain and Portugal, they settled in London in 1941, where Anna volunteered at the cafeteria for the Forces Françaises Libres (the Free French). She sang in the café sometimes. Soon she separated from her husband and became a projectionist, before getting involved in the théâtre "aux Armées" and singing on the BBC programme "Les Français parlent aux Français".

Anna Marly's most famous songs, including "Le Chant des partisans", date from this time. One day, towards the end of 1942, after having read an account of the Battle of Smolensk in the British papers, her Russian spirit was riled. One word came to her mind: "partisans". "I'm so confused, I pick up my guitar and play a rhythmic melody, and these Russian verses come pouring out from my heart: We will go there where the crow does not fly/And where the beast cannot go. No amount of strength and nobody/will make us turn back." Originally entitled, "La Marche des Partisans," this song was performed in Russian by its author until Joseph Kessel heard it for the first time and cried, "That's what France needs!" then wrote a French version with his nephew, Maurice Druon. After a whistled version was made the theme song of the BBC's "Honneur et Patrie," and then a way to recognize comrades in the maquis, "Le Chant des Partisans" (or "Guerilla Song," in English) quickly became the unofficial hymn of the Resistance.

She wrote "La Complainte du partisan" (The Partisan's Lament) at around the same time. "I was thinking about occupied France, and I began to play a sad, sad melody, without words." Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, the chief of the Libération-Sud movement, wrote the words to this song. Later, Joan Baez and Leonard Cohen recorded it. When she returned to France in 1945, Anna Marly was famous. Yet she moved to South America, where she became the ambassador of French chanson. In 1947 in Brazil she met her second husband, a Russian by the name of Yuri Smiernow. She continued to travel extensively, and crossed Africa accompanied by her guitar. These days, she lives in the US, where she writes stories and poems interwoven with memories. She hopes that her current work, like her recently published memoirs (Anna Marly, Troubadour de la Résistance. Tallandier-Historia), will serve as a testament to younger generations and all those who did not experience these tormented times in history, so that they, in turn, might carry and pass on the flame of memory.

Anna Marly, about whom General de Gaulle wrote "she made her talent into a weapon for France" and who was nicknamed the "Troubadour de la Résistance," wrote more than 300 songs, amongst them "Une chanson à trois temps," for Edith Piaf. Some of them have become part of our national heritage, a fact proven by the compulsory teaching of the "Chant des partisans" alongside the "Marseillaise" and the "Chant du départ" in schools during the 1960's. Written in the context of the war, Anna Marly's songs bear living witness to the history of France: for this reason, she was awarded the ordre national du Mérite in 1965 and the ordre national de la Légion d'honneur in 1985. She took part in an homage to Jean Moulin in 2000, on the 40th anniversary of 18th June 1960. During the ceremony, she sang the Chant des partisans with the French army choir. Anna Marly died in Alaska on 17th February 2006, at the age of 88.

Edmond Charles Octave Michelet was born in the 19th arrondissement of Paris on the 8th October 1899. As soon as he was 18 he enlisted voluntarily for the duration of the war. Appointed to the 126th infantry regiment of Brive, he discovered Corrèze where he married. He campaigned for the ACJF (Young French Catholic Action movement) of which he became president in Béarn and then in Corrèze. In 1932, he developed the Social Teams created by Robert Garric in 1919, whose aim was to facilitate the professional, intellectual and moral advancement of all its underprivileged members. Faced with the rise in Nazism, he created the Duguet Circle, a think tank that organised, amongst other things, a series of conferences called: "the dangers threatening our civilisation". As a father, he was not called up in 1939, but organised the national charity for helping the many refugees.

He made his first act of resistance in June 1940 by distributing, along with some friends in Brive, a tract quoting a text by Péguy: "the one who does not surrender to reason against the one who surrenders". In 1942, he became regional manager and then took over in charge of region 5 of the MUR (United Resistance Movement). On the 25th February 1943, Michelet was arrested by the German police for his acts of resistance acts. Imprisoned secretly at first for 6 months in Fresnes, he was deported to Dachau on the 15th September 1943. On the liberation of the camp on the 29th April 1945, he represented France on the international committee and dealt with the repatriation of all the French and the Spanish internees. He returned to France on the 27th May 1945.

In July 1945, he was appointed a member of the provisional consultative Assembly by the MLN (Movement of National Liberation). On the 21st October 1945, he was elected representative for Corrèze at the first constituent Assembly in the ranks of the MRP (Popular Republican Movement). In November 1945 he became the Minister for the Armed Forces in De Gaulle's government. In June 1946, he was elected representative for the second constituent Assembly and in November 1946, he was elected representative in the first legislative assembly. Beaten in the legislative elections of 17th June 1951 in Corrèze, he was elected councillor of the Republic in May 1952 and became vice-president of the 1958 High Assembly. In 1954, he headed the French delegation at the UN. In June 1958, Michelet became the minister for Ex-servicemen. He joined the Constitutional Council in February 1962. On the 12th March 1967, he was elected MP for the first Constituency of Finistère: Quimper. A month later, Edmond Michelet returned to government as minister in charge of the Civil Service.

After May 1968, he was minister without portfolio. Following the elections of the 23rd and 30th June 1968, with the formation of Couve de Murville's government, he found himself back in his seat as the representative to the Assembly for Finistère. He left it on the 22nd June 1969 to take care of Cultural Affairs in the Chaban-Delmas government, where he succeeded André Malraux. He occupied this position until his death in Marcillac near Brive on the 9th October 1970. Edmond Michelet received the 1959 Resistance literary prize and the Franco-Belgian literary Grand prix for Liberty in 1960 for his book of memoirs, "Rue de la liberté". He was president of the Amicable Society for Former members of Dachau, which he was able to keep going despite the cold war, and the founding president of the France-Algeria Association in 1963.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born on 29 June 1900 in Lyon, and received a classical education in a series of religious schools. Would he best be described as an aviator-poet, or perhaps as a writer-pilot? The life of one of the most legendary men and women who "died for France" during the World War 2 was short but exceptionally full. The writer and the poet On the eve of his first flying experience, the young Antoine, aged twelve at the time, presented one of his teachers with a poem about areonautical exploits, the first sign of the unusual duality of his destiny. Throughout his childhood, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote short texts, mostly in verse. In 1926, the author definitively adopted prose and his first story "L'aviateur" ("The Aviator") was published in a magazine. He went on to write "Courrier sud" ("Southern Mail") in 1929 in Morocco, the first of a series of five novels that would secure the legend of Saint-Ex, even before his tragic disappearance. In 1931, "Vol de nuit" ("Night Flight") won the 'Prix

Femina' (a French literary prize awarded by an exclusively female panel), which foreshadowed the resounding success of "Terre des hommes" ("Wind, Sand and Stars"), published in 1938. During his period in exile in the United States, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry published his last two literary works: "Pilote de Guerre" ("Flight to Arras") in 1942, and "Le Petit Prince" ("The Little Prince") in 1943. In 1948, the unfinished "Citadelle" ("The Wisdom of the Sands"), which he wrote in the months before his disappearance, was posthumously published. Many more of his letters and writings would be published later, including essays, correspondence, and press articles. As well as his literary genius, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was also a visionary in the world of cinema, turning out several film scripts in his lifetime.

The inventor and technician

From a very young age, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry showed extraordinary ingenuity, and spent much of his time experimenting with technical innovations with the help of his brothers and sisters. Consequently, from 1934 to 1940, his scientific curiosity and his piloting skills led him to register a series of patents with France's National Institute of Industrial Property, all relating to his inventions in the field of aviation. These discoveries were dedicated to creating materials that would improve piloting performance, or to developing procedures for more accurate navigation in the air. Two of these patents proposed a new system for safely 'blind' landing planes (i.e. in extremely poor or no visibility), accompanied by plans for the necessary mechanisms and equipment. Like the other innovations registered by Saint-Ex, these ideas were never followed up.

The pioneer of civil aviation

Called up for military service in 1921, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was assigned to the 2nd Regiment of Chasseurs in Strasbourg, where he obtained his pilot's licence. In 1926, this qualification gained him a place as mechanic and subsequently as an air mail pilot for the commercial postal airline Aéropostale owned by Pierre Latécoère . Saint-Exupéry was appointed director of the Cap Juby airfield in Morocco, and was responsible for securing this section of the Toulouse-Dakar route. In 1929, he joined Mermoz and Guillaumet in Buenos Aires, and became director and pilot of Aeroposta Argentina, a subsidiary of Aéropostale. His task was to create the flight route to Patagonia. The Aéropostale story came to an end in 1933 when the various civil airlines were grouped together under the name Air France. After a spell working as test pilot and surviving several serious accidents, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry joined the external relations department of the new company, and took part in a series of conferences on the subject of aviation from 1934.

The intrepid military pilot

Mobilized in September 1939, Reserve Captain Saint-Exupéry was assigned on his request to the reconnaissance group 2/33 based in Orconte in the Haute-Marne, and took part in missions over Germany and Belgium, then over occupied nothern France. In March 1943, he was called up a second time and he rejoined the group 2/33, then based in Morocco. Despite his age, he persuaded the military authorities to allow him to fly and found himself in the line of fire once again.

Neither Vichy supporter nor Gaullist

After the armistice in 1940, Saint-Exupéry wanted no part in the national Vichy 'revolution' and left for the United States, where he kept his distance from the rest of the French community in exile. The now greatly-respected author could not find his place in a Manichean universe split between supporters of General de Gaulle and those who preferred to collaborate with the enemy. Both sides tried vainly to secure his support, but Saint-Exupéry refused to commit to either, preferring to extol the need for national reconciliation in a country divided by defeat and occupation. A man of letters who refused to remain silent in defeat, in 1943 he published his "Lettre à un otage" ("Letter to a Hostage") addressed to his friend Léon Werth who had remained in France, and urging the French to unite in the fight for the respect of human rights .

The mysterious disappearance

Finally, he decided to act and joined the Free France resistance movement in 1943. On the morning of 31 July 1944, he took off from Borgo in Corsica at the controls of his P-38 Lightning fighter plane as part of a reconnaissance mission in preparation for the Allied landing in Provence. He would never return. On 7 April 2004, some sixty years after his disappearance, France-Presse released news of a discovery made by the French Underwater Archaeological Department in Marseille. A diver had deciphered four figures on the left wing of the wreckage of a plane resting 70m deep on the seabed off the coast of Marseille. These four figures correspond to the civil manufacturing number of Saint-Exupéry's Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Sixty years underwater means that we will never be able to identify the exact reasons behind the disappearance of the 'father of the Little Prince'. The mythical poet of aviation has definitively entered into legend. As someone who, in both his writings and actions, rose above life's chance happenings in his search for what is essential, many see him as one of the brightest stars of the 20th century.

Resistant, deported to Buchenwald in 1943 and several times Minister under General de Gaulle, Pierre Sudreau tells the story of his extraordinary encounter with the legendary pilot in "Au-delà de toutes les frontières"

The sacrifice of Jean Maridor

Jean Maridor was born in Le Havre in 1920.

A son of shopkeepers, he became fascinated by aviation from a very early age after visiting an air show. A gifted and applied student, he joined the school for training air force NCOs in Istres when he left high school. At the same time he obtained his private pilot’s licence at the age of 17.

Admitted into Istres in 1939, he followed the squad of trainee pilots during the winter months of 1939 to 1940. On 24 June, he and five classmates, travelling with a group of Polish airmen, boarded a boat leaving Saint-Jean-de-Luz for England. Following further training at the air base in Odiham, Jean Maridor was appointed to the rank of sergeant in the Royal Air Force on 1 October 1940.

Enlisted to Winston Churchill’s squadron, in 1941 he intensified the attacks against German ships in the Channel and the North Sea, interspersed by attacks against German fighters.

Promoted to the rank of sub-lieutenant then lieutenant in 1942, he was made captain in 1943 and received, after being awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Croix de la Liberation (the Liberation Cross).

In 1944, he specialised in chasing V-1s, long-range flying bombs that were fired at England.

On 3 August 1944, Captain Jean Maridor chased after a V-1 that was heading towards a hospital. Firing at very close range, Jean Maridor sacrificed his life to prevent the bomb striking its target.